EU/Iraq relations: flexibility instrument in favour of the rehabilitation and reconstruction (Interinstitutional Agreement of 6 May 1999, point 24)

 The committee adopted the report by Reimer BÖGE (EPP-ED, DE) approving the decision to mobilise the flexibility instrument to the tune of EUR 185 million to help finance the extension of the PEACE II programme in Northern Ireland, the subsidies to the decentralised agencies and the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Iraq.

While stressing its support for financing the PEACE II programme, the committee pointed out that a revision of the financial perspective sub-ceilings within heading 2, as originally proposed by the Commission, could have been an alternative solution. It added that the fact that the flexibility instrument was having to be mobilised for the decentralised agencies in heading 3 showed the need to reach a "structural solution" to the ever-increasing volume of funding needed for these agencies and the need to reconcile this with needs for other political priorities in the internal policies field. Lastly, MEPs stressed that the flexibility instrument had been mobilised for the 5th consecutive year for heading 4 as the needs arising from international crises since 2000 could not be financed within the initial ceiling of this heading.